Little Green Lies: Prime Minister Harper and Canada’s Environment

This is a guest post by Dr. David R. Boyd, an adjunct professor at Simon Fraser University and author of The Environmental Rights Revolution: A Global Study of Constitutions, Human Rights, and the Environment. Originally published at iPolitics.

Is Stephen Harper the worst prime minister that Canada has ever had, from an environmental perspective? The evidence is mounting that this is indeed the case, despite some early glimmers of hope. Given the deteriorating global environment, this failure of leadership could not have happened at a worse time.

That Canada has become an international laggard in environmental policy and practice is now an incontrovertible fact. In 2009, the Conference Board of Canada ranked Canada 15th out of 17 wealthy industrialized nations on environmental performance. In 2010, researchers at Simon Fraser University ranked Canada 24th out of 25 OECD nations on environmental performance.

Yale and Columbia ranked Canada 37th in their 2012 Environmental Performance Index, far behind green leaders such as Sweden, Norway, and Costa Rica, and trailing major industrial economies including Germany, France, Japan, and Brazil. Worse yet, our performance is deteriorating, as we rank 52nd in terms of progress over the 2000-2010 period. Even Prime Minister Harper has candidly admitted, “Canada’s environmental performance is, by most measures, the worst in the developed world. We’ve got big problems.”

For several years, the Conservatives blamed Canada’s environmental problems on the previous Liberal government, and their own lack of progress on a fractious minority parliament. Now that it has a majority, is the Conservative government attempting to solve environmental problems with stronger laws, higher standards, larger investments, and tougher enforcement?

No.

Not one of the bills introduced in the current session is intended to improve Canada’s environmental record. Instead, environmental laws are being weakened to expedite industrial development. Standards are being relaxed to meet industry’s demands. Environment Canada’s scientific capacity is being slashed. Ecojustice recently released a devastating report on the declining enforcement of environmental laws in Canada.

The first mention of ‘environment’ in last year’s Speech from the Throne mentioned “a stable, predictable, low-tax environment.” The second reference was to an “uncertain global environment.” The third focused on cutting red tape while “maintaining the highest standards to protect our environment.” Obviously the last is a crock. Why would Canada rank among the worst in the industrialized world for environmental protection if we actually had high standards?

In 2006, Prime Minister Harper said “Poor air quality isn’t just a minor irritant to be endured. It is a serious problem that poses an increasing risk to the health and well-being of Canadians.” The Conservatives were elected in 2006 with only one environmental commitment—to enact a Clean Air Act that would impose tough new regulations on polluting industries. As of 2012, there is still no Clean Air Act, no new air quality regulations, and no progress in reducing air pollution. Harper’s broken promise leads to thousands of premature deaths annually, exacerbates the illnesses of millions, and costs billions of dollars in preventable health care expenses.

In 2007, Prime Minister Harper said “climate change is perhaps the greatest threat to the future of humanity.” Five years later, the Conservatives have continued the Liberal tradition of addressing climate change through grand pronouncements, ineffective policies, and counterproductive actions. The federal home energy retrofit program has been canceled, reinstated, and canceled again. Canada allocated a smaller proportion of the recession-induced federal stimulus to green infrastructure and renewable energy than any other nation. After years of surreptitiously undermining climate change negotiations, Canada brazenly joined the US as the only countries in the world to renounce their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, using false arguments to do so.

In his foreword to the federal tourism strategy, Harper describes Canada as “a land of unparalleled beauty” and “a treasure trove of natural wonders.” Yet environmental groups have been forced to sue the Harper government time and time again for breaking the Species at Risk Act. In cases involving endangered caribou, killer whales, sage grouse, and other species, the Federal Court has sided with environmentalists because the government has misconstrued its legal obligations to protect endangered wildlife.

It is impossible to reconcile Prime Minister Harper’s contradictory words and actions without concluding that he deliberately misled Canadians. In 2006 and 2007, opinion polls revealed surging public concern about the state of the environment. Harper made a cold-blooded political calculation to appear green. The global financial crisis and ensuing recession have temporarily superseded the public’s environmental concerns, so Harper no longer needs to resort to such sophistry.

From coast to coast to coast, Canada’s magnificent natural heritage is in grave danger, threatened by a prime minister who pays only lip service to its preservation and restoration.

By the time the global economy stabilizes, people’s attention will return to environmental issues. To be fair to our Prime Minister, his focus is on the issue that is on most Canadians’ mind. Unfortunately, his government is going about improving the Canadian economy at the cost of our environment. Not only is this the antethesis of sustainable, but, as you pointed out, it is litteraly dangerous to our health.

“Flaherty’s update was ultimately rejected, purportedly on the grounds that it lacked any fiscal stimulus during the ongoinging economic crisis …”

Right now he’s spending money faster than a drunken sailor;

http://www.debtclock.ca/

And I’m positive that he’s going to use that as his excuse to slash Canadian social programs. As past President of the National Citizens Coalition, this is his deep seated wish, and it always has been.

http://nationalcitizens.ca/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Citizens_Coalition

If anyone really cares where I stand in all this… I feel that Canadians pay too little tax. Our tax includes medical coverage. American taxes do not. Ergo.. if conservatives want to mimic the US we should be paying more tax.

The odd thing is that as a Canadian, I’d been brought up to hate censorship because censorship was a communist tool.

So… its conservatives who are doing what communists used do to keep people in line. I guess we don’t live in a democracy like we used to. Naturally I find all this repellant.

I suspect that this muzzling is a prelude to the eventual removal of government scientific funding. (People can’t complain if they don’t know anything. Right?)

With current debt increasing in Canada it becomes a convenient excuse to cut funding.

But that’s not all…. Harper has been caught hiring people to go onto internet chat rooms and ‘correct’ misinformation. (This isn’t the first time I’ve seen stuff on the Cons doing this.)

http://digitaljournal.com/article/292437

You can consider that a pilot program that failed. But here’s the scary thought. There are no such rules against a business doing this. A business could hire people to ‘surf’ and ‘correct misinformation’. I seriously wonder how many climate deniers are paid to roam the boards.

Combine all that with the fact, that Harper refuses to answer any questions as a matter of message control. You must submit them to him before hand, and he’ll think about whether he even wants to answer it.

“Stephen Harper thinks the media is biased against his government, so he’s just not dealing with them anymore.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvE9EN4YPGM

(Which is of course.. not true. The press has driven all the parties nuts.)

"Fossil-fuel companies have spent millions funding anti-global-warming think tanks, purposely creating a climate of doubt around the science. DeSmogBlog is the antidote to that obfuscation." ~ BRYAN WALSH, TIME MAGAZINE

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